Chances are, your customer service just doesn’t generate the positive customer experience you want. No one wants to fail, so why does customer service fail so often in creating that customer loyalty? I want to suggest 3 ways we guarantee customer service failure.
Unless we have a monopoly on a good or service, customer service will play a part in proving value to customers. Creating value to customers through service, requires us to go beyond just having warm bodies answering the phone calls and returning email responses in 24-48 hours. There’s no value in mediocre customer service, real value comes from creating something unique, where customers actually ENJOY contacting your team.
Generic won’t get you there. Being plain is why you’re failing to achieve that special something with your customers.
Generic, boring, corporate-robot speak won’t win you any awards. Those books that teach you to smile and speak polite ensure that you aren’t rude, but they don’t knock customer’s socks off. Take off the corporate shackles and let your people be unique. A little bit of quirky? A little bit of edgy? If done in moderation it’s a great way to make customer service stand out just a little bit more than the rest.
2. Customer Service Just Blends In
What do you do that your competitors don’t? Customer service stands out and makes a difference when it’s actually different. Customer want value. Customer want action. Does your customer service actually act and provide the value customers want? If you don’t do any more than the competition, why should customers stick with you?
3. Customer Service Ignores Employees
When individuals in the organization feel disconnected, not cared-for, or that they don’t have an advocate on their side, the entire organization begins to suffer. Think that it doesn’t matter how you treat your people? Just take a look at some shocking confessions from customer service agents that prove that frustrated employees destroy the customer experience.
Just Shine!
If we’re always worried about things going wrong, we’re missing the opportunity to focus on making good things happen. Customer service isn’t perfect, things will go wrong. But having the clear desire in place to take care of the customer is enough to overcome those situations where service goes wrong. Don’t get bogged down on what went wrong. Learn from it, make changes because of it, and serve better because of it.
I’ve never once heard a customer praise company policies or hoop jumping to get things done. Customers want action. They want to see results. Empower teams to provide results. Set your service apart from the boring, tired, and old customer service ways.
Remember, customer service won’t ever be perfect. That’s not realistic. The human element will prevent that. But focus on helping the customer, destroying red tape that keeps customer needs and wants from getting done, and creating goodwill with customers by making personal connections with them, will set you apart from the competition. That’s providing REAL customer service.
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